ITV kicks off movie awards

Event honors blockbusters

Public voting started Monday for ITV’s inaugural National Movie Awards, which takes place Sept. 28 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and will celebrate Blighty’s box office hits of the past year.

The public can vote online, by telephone or by filling out a form at a local theater.

The televised kudofest, which is designed to fete summer popcorn pics and A-list stars, was launched by ITV in March following the success of the ITV National Television Awards.

The 90-minute awards show will be broadcast live in primetime Friday night on ITV1.

The four nominees in the four film categories — action/adventure, animation, comedy and family — represent the four pics in each genre that banked the most B.O. coin in Blighty between October and August.

Voting in the comedy section should be competitive with “Borat,” “Hot Fuzz” and “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” — all boasting local connections –up against Ben Stiller laffer “Night at the Museum.”

COMEDY“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”“Hot Fuzz”“Mr Bean’s Holiday”“Night at the Museum”

FAMILY“Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”“Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End”“Spider-Man 3″

PERFOMANCE – MALEOrlando Bloom as Will Turner, “Pirates Of the Caribbean: At World’s End”Daniel Craig as James Bond, “Casino Royale”Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow,”Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End” Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, “Transformers”Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, “Spider-Man 3″Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”Bruce Willis as John McClane, “Die Hard 4.0″